By his own impeccable standards, The Red Castle was one of the most unguarded releases of John Southworth‘s career. A spiritual ramble through grief and wonder, its hybrid of ancient and modern instrumentation felt unexpectedly poignant and immersive. Following the death of his father, it also marked a life chapter and presented a subsequent threshold to somewhere new.
Rain from the East arrives just seven months later and amplifies, both figuratively and literally, Southworth’s signature style in surprising ways. It’s a confident album, compact in its arrangements, but played with ferocity and intention. Like much of his best work, it plucks lesser-heard elements from esoteric subgenres and shakes them into a cocktail only he can serve.
Tag Archive: John Southworth
Witches, Templars, gargoyles — all are roll called in “Town of the Castle,” a jaunty medieval pop song that plays like an overture to John Southworth‘s marvelous 15th album. Southworth is an Englishman who for most of his career has called Canada home. Many of his poetic, surrealist records are set against North American backdrops, but on The Red Castle, Europe is his muse. After bearing witness to his father’s medically assisted death, the singer/songwriter took himself overseas for what became a kind of spiritual ramble through the Old World. With its impeccable production and orchestral adornments, The Red Castle is consistent with much of Southworth’s late-period catalog, though there is a poignancy here that bleeds through his signature abstraction.